USC needs a coach after firing Lane Kiffin in September. Mack Brown may have to win out and win the Big 12 to save his job at Texas, and Will Muschamp’s position at Florida gets shakier by the day/loss/injury.

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini needs a win this weekend at home against Michigan State, or the Huskers might just be done with a coach who produces four losses — and no conference championships — season after season.

At this point even Michigan, dangerously close to tanking in season three under Brady Hoke, isn’t even a safe bet. Losing out and finishing 6-6 is a very real possibility.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” one agent said earlier this week. “There’s this strange mix of panic and excitement in the entire (coaching) community. You’re talking about some serious jobs that potentially could be available.”

And others that could because of unintentional movement (one coach leaving a job for another) — or the NFL taking another run at three of the game’s best: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Bill O’Brien (Penn State) and Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M).

Contracts in this sport mean nothing — on both sides of the transition. Schools will buy out contracts if they feel they’re getting the right coach.

Arkansas will pay Bret Bielema $5.1 million this fall, and about $2.1 million of that goes toward paying off Bielema’s contract at Wisconsin. Tennessee paid $1.4 million more in buyout money to get Butch Jones from Cincinnati, which paid nearly a million to get Tuberville from Texas Tech.

Gone are the days where coaches would pay to get out of contracts (the Rich Rodriguez debacle at Michigan ended that). Now coaches (and their agents) demand that schools pay buyout costs.

That’s why this offseason will be so tricky — and so full of the unexpected. Consider these crazy but all too real possibilities:

—The Texas job comes open, and the Longhorns strike a deal with UCLA coach Jim Mora. That leaves the UCLA job, in the middle of the most talent-rich area in the nation, open.

—Bill O’Brien moves to the NFL, Al Golden moves to Penn State, and another big BCS job is open at Miami.

—USC hires Sumlin, and Texas A&M, with its planned stadium upgrade and newfound strength in the SEC, is a prime job.

—The Washington Redskins, done with the Mike Shanahan experiment, hire Art Briles away from Baylor at the behest of Robert Griffin III — who is as close to an owner as any player in the NFL. That leaves Baylor and its brand-new stadium — and newfound status in the Big 12 — a prime spot. (UPDATE: The Associated Press reported Wednesday night that Briles had agreed to a new 10-year contract that will run through 2023.)

The possibilities are endless. But know this: there will be change come December, and the events of the next four weeks will dictate if it’s typical turnover.

Or groundbreaking change.

2. Everyone has an excuse

It’s not about a knee, Ducks. It’s about the lines of scrimmage.

Be grateful Stanford exposed it before Alabama did in the biggest game of the season.

He’s being extremely generous to the former staff (that he was once part of) and their ability to coax all of three wins from a team with the talent to win much more. For everyone who scoffed at the Malzahn hire as more of the same — myself included — check out what the new coach at Auburn has accomplished in all of 10 games:

—Auburn is the physical, impose your will team that former coach Gene Chizik tried for year to generate but never could.

—The Tigers were 78th in the nation in rushing last season, averaging 148 yards per game and 4.07 yards per carry, and had 22 touchdowns. This season, they’re 3rd in the nation in rushing, averaging 320 yards per game and 6.49 yards per carry, and have 33 touchdowns.

—The biggest benefactor of the new run game? The Auburn defense, which gave up 28.3 points per game in 2012 (66th in the nation), and is 22nd in the nation (20.4 ppg) going into this weekend’s game at Georgia.

The Tigers are doing all of this with a quarterback who played defensive back in his first stop in the SEC (Georgia), transferred to a junior college, signed with Auburn but didn’t arrive on campus until fall camp.

Think about that: four weeks of preparation in Malzahn’s offense, and Marshall might just be the most dangerous running quarterback in college football. He has more carries (104) than completions (93), and in the last two victories at Arkansas and Tennessee, threw the ball a combined 15 times.

“There’s going to come a time when we’ll have to throw the ball,” Malzahn said. ”We know that.”

Maybe it’s this week against Georgia. Or maybe Auburn just lines up and imposes its will on the Bulldogs, too.

5. The Weekly Five

So Urban Meyer believes his Ohio State team is underrated. How underrated, you ask? He recently revealed he is voting Ohio State No. 2 in the nation in his coaches poll ballot — ahead of everyone’s No. 2 Florida State. Five more underrated things in the Book of Urb:

UCLA's Myles Jack is only a freshman, but is the Pac-12's best linebacker and ran for 120 yards last week. (AP Photo)

6. Jack of all Bruins

Before we come unglued about UCLA’s Myles Jack playing both tailback and linebacker in a regular season Pac-12 game, let me remind you of this:

Chris Gamble played 121 plays — ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE PLAYS — at cornerback and wide receiver in the 2002 BCS National Championship Game.

Obviously the physical toll on Gamble isn’t nearly what Jack endures playing two positions where absorbing hits — every play — is part of the job. That’s what makes Jack’s unthinkable night against Arizona even more impressive.

Still, Jack’s future is at linebacker. One Pac-12 coach told me earlier this year that Jack — a true freshman — not only was already the best linebacker in the Pac-12, but had the best instincts of any defensive player in the Pac-12.

A few weeks ago, when I traveled to Oregon to see the Ducks play UCLA, I asked an NFL scout about Ducks QB Marcus Mariota and Bruins QB Brett Hundley. His first response:

“Watch No. 30 at UCLA.”

We’ve got two more years of him, everyone. Soak it in.

7. Rich get richer

An interesting situation is developing in Tallahassee, and it has nothing to do with this year’s team or this BCS National Championship run.

Jacob Coker, the redshirt sophomore backup to star freshman QB Jameis Winston, hurt his knee (meniscus) last week against Wake Forest and could miss the remainder of the season.

That’s secondary right now. The more pressing issue: where does Coker, who by coach Jimbo Fisher’s admission, played as well as Winston in the fall camp competition, play in 2013?

Coker, according to an FSU source, will graduate by the end of the school year and maybe as soon as this December. That means he could transfer anywhere as a graduate student and not give up a year of eligibility.

Guess who needs a quarterback in 2014? Guess who Coker turned down to choose Florida State?

That would be Alabama, the team getting ready to win its third straight national title.

Imagine how more difficult that decision becomes for Coker, a Mobile, Ala., native, if the Noles and Tide play in the BCS Championship game.

Davidson Day (N.C.) QB Will Grier enrolls at Florida in January and could be an answer to the Gators' offensive problems. (Giovanna Carrascosa/SN)

8. The fix at Florida

Will Muschamp hinted at it earlier this week, and it can be denied no longer: it’s time to change the way Florida’s coach thinks about offense.

“What we’re doing so far is not working,” Muschamp said. “Keep doing the same stuff, you get the same results.”

Look, this has nothing to do with Alabama’s success as a ground and pound team, and Muschamp trying to duplicate his mentor’s blueprint in Gainesville. This has everything to do with what has been successful at Florida for decades — and playing to your recruiting core.

Steve Spurrier started it with the Fun ‘N Gun in the 1990s and won a national title, and Urban Meyer brought the spread to Gainesville in the 2000s and won two more national titles. If it works to spread the field and use speed and athletic ability to win games, stick with it.

The solution for Muschamp: hire Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery and pay him whatever he wants. When he gets to campus, tell returning injured quarterback Jeff Driskel and heralded commitment Will Grier that the job is open — and go from there.

Imagine a Baylor-style offense with the type of nasty defense Muschamp has built at Florida (before the injuries this fall). A devastating combination.

9. Blue-blooded thrill

Take a deep breath, everyone. Duke is on the verge of winning the ACC Coastal Division and playing in the league championship game.

By late Thursday night, Duke will know if it controls its destiny in the Coastal: if Clemson wins at home against Georgia Tech as expected, Duke simply needs to win out to reach the ACC Championship Game.

That means beating suddenly reeling Miami at home this weekend, and beating Wake Forest (4-6) and North Carolina (4-5) on the road to finish the season with a school-record 10 wins and get a shot at Atlantic champion Florida State.

Duke has won five straight, and is winning with defense (currently 33rd in scoring defense) in the back half of the schedule. Now, the problem:

Miami hasn’t lost to Duke as a member of the ACC, and has scored 101 points the last two seasons under coach Al Golden. In fact, the only time Duke beat Miami was 1976, when the Canes were so awful, the administration contemplated giving up the sport.

It’s not like that very scenario hasn’t been passed around at Duke over the years.